1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of recording and/or reproducing information using disk-shaped storage media, and in particular to a disk drive capable of seating the storage media upon a spindle of a drive motor.
2. Description Relative to the Prior Art
To seat a central hub of a magnetic disk on a drive spindle according to the known technique (as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,593), a loading door containing the disk is manually overridden by finger pressure beyond a normally locked position. The door has a pressure member which, during the overriding movement, presses upon the central hub to forcibly mount the disk upon the drive spindle. When finger pressure is released, the door retreats to its locked position in which the pressure member is spaced from the hub. The drive motor can thus be operated without frictional contact between the pressure member and the hub.
Reliance on finger pressure is not always effective, or even possible, when the operator is necessarily removed from physical contact with the drive system. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,755, which is incorporated herein by reference, a cartridge containing a magnetic disk is mechanically removed from a magazine by a reciprocating shuttle and inserted into a disk drive. After the disk is used, the shuttle retrieves the cartridge from the disk drive and replaces it in the same place in the magazine. Since the disk drive is paced by mechanical requirements, and is effectively inaccessible to the operator, the known technique for hub seating cannot be employed.